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Nordic Skiing/Biathlon Thread

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meat puppet

meat puppet

May 29, 2011
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Re: Re:

Singer01 said:
meat puppet said:
I think johaug will be beatable this year on courses that have a 50/50 or larger emphasis on absolute power as opposed to power to weight. Lillehammer was a prime example of a course favouring her. When brute force and being fast on the flats get more emphasis, kalla and pärmä for example might as well win.
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I fear that may be wishful thinking. I think she wins at worst 75% of distance races this year.
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That is entirely possible. However, xc has evolved into a more upper body, more absolute force generation, short force generation and high peak force, and more speed determined sport in recent years in men save for alpe cermis. Johaug like skiers are not favoured by this.

This trend has to catch up with johaug too at least in some events eventually. Or as you say, her aerobic capacity will be enough to compensate, and more.

But yeah, today was not that day.
 
Libertine Seguros

Libertine Seguros

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Well, that was nice, a real, genuine individual start endurance race won by a proper distance specialist in style. Some good performances all up and down the startlist, very stable conditions which was nice as we got what felt like a very fair race. Real great showing from Irineu Esteve Altimiras in the early starters, he was pretty good at the U23 World Championships last season and had a good but not great final pursuit time in Lillehammer. Shall watch his progress with interest.
 
python

python

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roethe, as i predicted, it was...

bolshu paced smart and if i recall the last splits right, he matched roethe in the last kilometers and was some seconds faster than sundby...back in the overall leader. dont understand why cologna isn't better.

we pretty much can say at this point that tomorrow norway and russia will be 1-2. it is also curious to look to davos next week b/c ustiougov will enter and iversen with klaebo should be there too.
 
frenchfry

frenchfry

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Clément Parisse first non-Norwegian/Russian, he is now the number 1 Frenchman pending the return of Manificat. Great performance. Gaillard still capable of top 15.

Agree on the lack of longer distance races, which are the tradition of X-country skiing.
 
python

python

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i can only speculate it was the swedish waxing issue...great run from a young finnish girl (pippo) splitting 2 russian teams. a mild surprise NOT seeing norway 2 closer, rather, the 2 young russian teams almost taking 2 podiums.
 
python

python

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Re: Re:

Libertine Seguros said:
python said:
i can only speculate it was the swedish waxing issue...great run from a young finnish girl (pippo) splitting 2 russian teams. a mild surprise NOT seeing norway 2 closer, rather, the 2 young russian teams almost taking 2 podiums.
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To be fair, she might have had to settle for fourth if Nechaevskaya hadn't fallen.
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libertine, my impression was the finn was in 3d at the start of the last climb when the russian fell..to men - what an exciting race ! bolshu literally, played with sundby and holund leaving both in snow dust. the guy i slayed to surprise yeterday - spitsov - did deliver but was brilliant today not giving an inch to roethe.

and the 100% fresh krogh had to out-sprint melni who podiumed in a very hard fought 30km yesterday. btw, his skating is one of the most gracious i have seen in men. and efficient.
 
Bavarianrider

Bavarianrider

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Great relay on a fantastic track in a stunning scenery. That light was just awesome :lol: :lol:

If Ustiugov can get back on form, the Russians could have a serois shot in Seefeld.
Though on those wack ass tracks creating gaps will be tough, so it will be a pretty open race most likely.
 
Libertine Seguros

Libertine Seguros

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Re: Re:

python said:
Libertine Seguros said:
python said:
i can only speculate it was the swedish waxing issue...great run from a young finnish girl (pippo) splitting 2 russian teams. a mild surprise NOT seeing norway 2 closer, rather, the 2 young russian teams almost taking 2 podiums.
Click to expand...
To be fair, she might have had to settle for fourth if Nechaevskaya hadn't fallen.
Click to expand...
libertine, my impression was the finn was in 3d at the start of the last climb when the russian fell..to men - what an exciting race ! bolshu literally, played with sundby and holund leaving both in snow dust. the guy i slayed to surprise yeterday - spitsov - did deliver but was brilliant today not giving an inch to roethe.

and the 100% fresh krogh had to out-sprint melni who podiumed in a very hard fought 30km yesterday. btw, his skating is one of the most gracious i have seen in men. and efficient.
Click to expand...
Yea, but she was 3rd behind Nechaevskaya who had attacked on the climb before that and had opened up a smallish gap, and it was Nechaevskaya who fell, and the Russian who outsprinted her at the line was behind her at the time. Admittedly, however, the camera angles don't make it clear if Piippo lost any time having to avoid the stricken Russian, though, so she may not have lost the sprint if Nechaevskaya hadn't fallen, and would possibly still have been 3rd anyway.
 
B

BullsFan22

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Predictable that Krogh would just sit there and do nothing until the last bit. Draft, draft, draft and then sprint. Melnichenko is very smooth. He doesn't ski with the usual Russian skate technique. He's rock solid in the upper body, no real wasted movements. It's deceptive. On one hand I question the lack of attempts to drop Krogh but on the other, he may have just gone a tough pace the whole way, hoping to grind out Krogh, but it didn't work. Krogh though, not sure what to make of him. One race he is already dead after a couple KM, the next he is sprinting for the win. What's going on with him? Of course he didn't race yesterday, Melnichenko did, but that's not the significant issue, I don't think. There's almost 3 months until the World Champs in Seefeld. I am sure we won't see these exact lineups there, especially not since neither Klaebo or Ustiugov raced and those that may not be as sharp now, will be different end of Feb/Early March. Surely Klaebo would be the obvious choice (if he is in shape) for the anchor in Austria? And Ustiugov for the Russians. And a week after winning in Lillehammer, Toenseth skied for the 2nd team today. Likewise Holund. Not sure guys like Iversen and Roethe will be in the same form in Seefeld. Also no guarantee for the Russians that Bolshunov, Spitsov and Melnichenko will be as good then.

The Swedes apparently missed the wax. Can't believe that after they watched the women struggle with problems a couple hours earlier. They had more than two hours to do something and still couldn't. Not only are they thin on talent in the current men's division, they also suffer from bad skis?? Not a good recipe.

Everyone else is almost irrelevant at this point. The Norwegians and Russians are the only teams that can field one very competitive team. They have plenty of talent to choose from those that were there this weekend, plus those that weren't. Hopefully it doesn't kill off the interest in the sport.

Speaking of interest, I was a bit disappointed in how many spectators were there. Yesterday, ok, it snowed and some people probably chose not to drive in the storm. What about today? Great weather, good conditions. I know that Beito is a village, but I thought more people would come watch!
 
B

BullsFan22

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Re: Re:

Libertine Seguros said:
python said:
Libertine Seguros said:
python said:
i can only speculate it was the swedish waxing issue...great run from a young finnish girl (pippo) splitting 2 russian teams. a mild surprise NOT seeing norway 2 closer, rather, the 2 young russian teams almost taking 2 podiums.
Click to expand...
To be fair, she might have had to settle for fourth if Nechaevskaya hadn't fallen.
Click to expand...
libertine, my impression was the finn was in 3d at the start of the last climb when the russian fell..to men - what an exciting race ! bolshu literally, played with sundby and holund leaving both in snow dust. the guy i slayed to surprise yeterday - spitsov - did deliver but was brilliant today not giving an inch to roethe.

and the 100% fresh krogh had to out-sprint melni who podiumed in a very hard fought 30km yesterday. btw, his skating is one of the most gracious i have seen in men. and efficient.
Click to expand...
Yea, but she was 3rd behind Nechaevskaya who had attacked on the climb before that and had opened up a smallish gap, and it was Nechaevskaya who fell, and the Russian who outsprinted her at the line was behind her at the time. Admittedly, however, the camera angles don't make it clear if Piippo lost any time having to avoid the stricken Russian, though, so she may not have lost the sprint if Nechaevskaya hadn't fallen, and would possibly still have been 3rd anyway.
Click to expand...

It's hard to speculate. Nechaevskaya was definitely in front, with Soboleva in third and a definitive gap between herself and the front two. Nechaevskaya was most likely going to pull ahead on the final climb, but Piipo lost a bit of speed having to slightly check her speed and obviously maneuver around the Russian. Soboleva had a bit more speed and caught Piipo not long after they started climbing. My guess would be that Nechaevskaya would have beaten those two, but who would have finished 3rd is hard to say.
 
python

python

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in less than 3h northug will officially announce his retirement at a presser.

certainly an outstanding skier who i personally wont miss.
 
Libertine Seguros

Libertine Seguros

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Team Sky and Petter Northug on the same day? I must have done something to please God, Allah, Buddha, the nine million deities of Shinto or what have you. Petter Northug is what happens when you marry Peter Sagan's personality with Simon Gerrans' racing acumen (plus sycophantic commentators describing this as great tactical wizardry). The newspapers and other media have been trying to pretend he's still relevant for the last couple of years but really, since Falun he's not really merited a place in the team let alone main contender billing, they've just been desperate to cling to his past because he makes for easy copy by acting like a total tool. Excellent news. Maybe now he can serve the jail sentence he was supposed to. Don't let the door hit you on the way out, Gull Petter.
 
O

Oude Geuze

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Well someone took a sip of the hatorade today lol Northug is the greatest skier of our generation, the sport will sorely miss him and the drama he created. No one comes even close to the spectacle of Northug. Even Swedes watched xc skiing during his time. Now interest will fall hard in Norway at least, such a shame but he gave us the best years of skiing the sport ever had and transformed how it was raced for modern times. Now if only Klæbo can up his showmanship and personality a few notches we might be ok:)
 
S

Singer01

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Re:

Libertine Seguros said:
The newspapers and other media have been trying to pretend he's still relevant for the last couple of years but really, since Falun he's not really merited a place in the team let alone main contender billing.
Click to expand...
Didn't he finish 2nd overall the year after falun?
 
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